1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp that has a red color light emitting portion, an amber color light emitting portion and a clear light emitting portion which are surrounded by a dummy portion.
2. Prior Art
A typical vehicular marker lamp such as a rear combination lamp comprises a red color light emitting portion, an amber color light emitting portion and a clear light emitting portion. The front portion of each one of these light emitting portions is formed with a lens that has the same color as the luminescent color of each one of the light emitting portions. In other words, the front portion of the red color light emitting portion is red, the front portion of the amber color light emitting portion is amber, and the front portion of the clear light emitting portion is clear or has no color. In some marker lamps, due to designing demands, the surrounding areas of these three light emitting portions are formed as a dummy portion, and this dummy portion has a design color (e.g., a smoky or body color) which is different from any one of the luminescent colors of the three light emitting portions.
By forming the front portion of the dummy portion with a dummy lens that has a different color from the lenses of three light emitting portions in a vehicular marker lamp of the type described above, it becomes unnecessary to apply a surface treatment such as a coating that is required to obtain the design color.
When the dummy lens as described above is manufactured, however, a four-color molding is required, because such a front lens that includes the dummy lens needs to be formed in four colors including red, amber, clear (i.e., colorless and transparent) and design colors. A three-color molding is generally used when the front lenses for rear combination lamps are molded; however, when such front lenses are formed by a four-color molding, new molding facilities become necessary, and additional processing steps are required due to the addition of one color. Thus, the lamp manufacturing costs tend to increase.